Hey Shutterstock, we should talk. We love your product, and pay a monthly subscription to use your services. But what’s up with some of these bizarre stock photos? Considering your industry, you’ve surely seen the TV show Corporate, in which the opening credits satirize the unnaturalness of these business “candids.” As frequent users of this platform, we regularly weed through these photos, so we aggregated our favorite worst types of employee rewards shots below.

Why we love/hate this photo: Not obviously weird, but definitely is

At first glance, this photo doesn’t seem particularly odd. Sure, you may notice that the trophy is unusually small to be that excited, but the mystery truly grows as you look closer. Note that the man with the reward isn’t next to anyone – why? Did he receive the reward from someone, walk up to the front of the room, stop whatever presentation is happening in the background, and start cheering himself on? Why does everyone else feel this is acceptable behavior, and that they should support him by clapping?

Why we love/hate this photo: So relatable, and yet so awkward

Ever been on a team that won a trophy? Correction: ever been on a super competitive team that can’t decide on who gets to hold the trophy? I can hear the photographer’s instruction now: “Okay everyone, settle down. You there, move your hands down so that everyone can touch at least part of the trophy. Even a finger will do. Everyone, get closer… closer… got it!”

Why we love/hate this photo: Violence in the workplace should never be celebrated

Why is this man about to punch this trophy? Did he receive it for doing something unsavory? Did he lose a championship in an annual competition and is now forced to give it to someone else? Unless it’s one of those two circumstances, there are no logical explanations for anyone would find themselves in this position. So who is using this photo in their promotional materials?

Why we love/hate this photo: Excitement or the moment before applying for worker’s comp?

This is what happens when companies splurge on team-building exercises once a year but don’t follow up with necessary HR resources when needed. This woman is about to do a trust fall, but wait, there’s no one there to catch her!

Why we love/hate this photo: Mansplaining summarized in one photo

Here’s a thought experiment: imagine this photo from the woman’s perspective. A man hovers over her, steadily approaching with outstretched thumbs. Is he going for her eyes? She covers herself for protection, laughing to keep him happy, but is moments from running away. A chilling image for sure, Shutterstock.

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Ready to go deeper with your employee engagement? To schedule a meeting, visit us at Recognize.

Thor, a ballerina, and a skeleton are having a meeting to discuss an upcoming project. Einstein is making a coffee. The CEO is robin and the CFO is batman. This is normal behavior, at least on Halloween. I argue that this makes your office so much cooler and more productive. Everyone lets their guard down and comes together in silly costume fun. Here are a few ideas to make your office awesome throughout the fall season.

5. Play pranks on people, especially people in leadership.

6. Get all the classic props, such as peeled grapes for eye balls.

8. Invite the employees’ families for the halloween party and trick or treat.

9. Set up a photo booth for staff to take photos together.

10. Provide extra costumes for people who don’t have one, but still want to participate.

Other company fall event ideas

1. Chili cook off with poem or song accompanying the chili.

2. Plan a bad sweater party on or offsite.

3. Use Recognize to vote on the worst sweaters or best Halloween costumes. Give a recognition badge for the top winners.

4. Host a Thanksgiving dinner.

5. Sponsor a white elephant giving party.

6. Volunteer time at a food bank or shelter.

7. Compete with other offices on participation and best outfits.

Having these events isn’t just about having fun, it is about building long lasting relationships and connections. It is about relaxing and being creative, which leads to inspiration and innovations. Try to take advantage of any situation to bring your employees together this fall season.

The Recognize Team interviewed customers, researched strategies, surveyed the public, and used stories from our lives to produce 101 Top Employee Recognition Ideas. It was so important to us, we needed something more flexible than the blog to host it. So we put it on the main website.

Trick people into thinking you are working.

More now than ever, people are skipping out at work. How many times has someone said, “I’m working from home today” and sure they are on Slack and Skype, but when you call them they are clearly at the beach or a day time rave.

Facebook Workplace is a communication and productivity tool for businesses. It utilizes the great parts of Facebook to help companies work together more effectively. Take a look at the 10 creative ways to engage employees on Facebook Workplace.

1. Move daily communication into Workplace chat

Let’s face it, workers get a lot of email. Guide employees to move conversations from email to Facebook Workplace chat. This way email can focus on the larger form letters or correspondence with clients. For the daily chit chat, keep it in Facebook Workplace.

2. Login to Facebook Workplace with single-sign-on

If your employees can sign in with their omnipresent SSO username and password, it makes logging in that much easier. That’s why companies should be utilizing Okta, Lastpass, Microsoft Azure, or one of the many single-sign-on (SSO) providers. Both Recognize and Facebook Workplace support SSO.

3. Create groups to organize projects or teams

Facebook Workplace really shines with how content can be organized into groups. Recognition group, cycling group, engineering group, investment group, leadership group, are a few examples you can create. Plus, you can always remove groups later so don’t be conservative.

4. Add integrations from existing business tools

Employees do not want more websites to visit in their daily work. Instead, integrate all of your tools and services into one place, like in Facebook Workplace. For instance, add your employee recognition program, your cloud storage, and other processes into Facebook Workplace.

5. Add an employee recognition integration into Workplace

Tying into #4, employee recognition fits really nicely into Facebook Workplace. People naturally praise others in Facebook Workplace, so your organization might as well turn those ad hoc recognitions into official endorsements. That’s what we are doing at Recognize.

6. Use Facebook Workplace events to schedule meetings

The more we are in one app the faster we can move around. Facebook Workplace events gives you the power of Facebook events, but for your company. For example, create discussion groups around events for your team.

7. Improve culture with Facebook Workplace

Facebook Workplace allows leaders to share their vision in a live video feed, like Facebook Live. It will connect leaders with the rest of the organization. Also in Facebook Workplace, use a group for a newsletter to keep the company up to speed.

8. Get consensus on an issue using reactions

Facebook gives your company instant feedback on any topic with a range of responses. With enterprise products that offer employee surveys for $500 a month, this added benefit helps clarify the ROI of adding Facebook Workplace.

9. Share authenticated content in Facebook Workplace

Most companies have an intranet in Sharepoint or a custom internal website, but sharing that content on Facebook isn’t trivial and will take a bit of setup. To learn more go here.

10. Empower users by making them admins of specific groups

Employees crave more than money. Employees want autonomy, power, status, and access. Allow employees to create their own groups or assign passionate, top employees to be admins of groups. Ideas include a green initiative, project management improvements, ideation, sports and hobbies, or any KPI you want to drive. Help your employees feel empowered by having autonomy over processes or groups.

Facebook is just getting warmed up

Facebook Workplace launched last year and the attention is growing. With the advent of more apps to integrate, Facebook Workplace may become a major player for enterprise intranets.

Sharon Pope does a great job providing a high-level overview of the dos and don’ts in public relations for startups. Here are essentially the cliff notes for this video:

When writing a reporter, start with the what instead of the why. Be brief. Say ‘We are the X of Y’. Have X be something that reporter has written about. Example: The Spotify of Meditation.

Find a user story. Look through your existing users. Has anything newsworthy happened to a user thanks to your app? Tell reporters about the user story – have that be the story.

Respond to other articles. “Your story about XYZ”. Possibly you disagree with that or shed a different light on the topic. Comment on articles with something thoughtful, not self-promoting. Reddit and Quora are places to do this. Create your own content – Medium/Linkedin.

Exclusives are when only one publication has access to this article. Embargos are when you ask multiple reporters if they will hold news at a specific time or place.

Exclusives are great to have an in-depth article that can be a beacon for your company.